In breaking news, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), has just announced that it has charged a manager of a gambling venue for allegedly failing to take all reasonable steps to identify a problem gambler. As yet, we don’t know any specific details as the matter is now before the courts.

This has never happened before in New Zealand and sends a strong and clear message to all venues that there are consequences if venue staff do not abide by the law and ensure that they assist patrons that are displaying signs of harmful gambling.

Venues are required under the Gambling Act to have at least one person on site who is trained in problem gambling awareness and they have to be able to approach a player that may be experiencing difficulties with their gambling.​Venue staff should look out for signs that someone’s gambling could be problematic. This includes: attempts to borrow money on site, agitation, attempts to cash cheques, their family and friends showing concern, long gambling sessions, trying to jam the pokie machine so it plays automatically, playing more than once a week, and children left unattended.

If there is a conviction there will be a fine, but more importantly, they won't be able to operate a gambling premises again.We applaud the DIA for this prosecution and hope it fires a warning shot across the bow of all gambling venues that they have obligations under the law to look after their patrons and make sure their staff step in and help anyone that is displaying signs of harmful gambling.

Author

Andree Froude is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the PGF Group.For blog enquiries please email: kaitchison@pgf.nz.

This year’s Gambling Harm Awareness Week - #GHAW2018 – was one of the busiest yet. In collaboration with many community partners, we held a hugely successful awareness raising campaign called ‘Pause the Pokies’, which involved venues across New Zealand turning off their pokies for an hour to help raise awareness of gambling harm. Read more…

What we did?
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The Pause the Pokies initiative started in 2017 with seven venues in Lower Hutt. This year an incredible 81 venues participated in a nationwide campaign that saw pubs and clubs from Kaitaia to Bluff turning off their pokies for an hour during Gambling Harm Awareness Week.

​Some of the venues hosted a morning tea or BBQ during the hour, some venues had a live band and some hosted a quiz. Overall, support from the gaming venues was fantastic. The Pause the Pokies team in every region got out-and-about in the community and managed to speak to people who might be directly affected by gambling harm - with the aim of getting people to think about how gambling may be impacting their lives.

What did we learn?

Everyone that participated in Pause the Pokies had positive stories to share. We all enjoyed donning our t-shirts, and getting out in the community to visit venues and start conversations.
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Pause the Pokies provided an excellent opportunity to build relationships with venue owners and managers and to engage with patrons in the venues during the hour the machines were turned off.

We had some enlightening conversations with the venue managers about their roles in being responsible hosts; and we acknowledged that it can sometimes be difficult talking to their patrons about gambling harm.

We had discussions about gambling harm with many people all around the country and while an hour might not seem long to pause the pokies, as one of our Facebook friends said, ‘a waterfall starts with one drop of water’.

Also a very big thank you to all the trusts, societies and venues that supported the initiative as we couldn’t have done it without your support. A big shout-out to One Foundation who had the largest number of participating venues.

And who knows; next year we could be pausing the pokies with a whole lot more!

Andree Froude, Communications Director at the Problem Gambling Foundation, says over 60 venues are signed up to take part which is an outstanding result.

“The awareness week starts with 15 of the 17 venues in Invercargill pausing their pokies in the morning which is amazing,” she says.

“We are thrilled that so many venues and pokie trusts are supporting our campaign and agreeing to turn off their pokies for an hour in recognition of gambling harm in Aotearoa.”

Andree Froude says the national theme for Gambling Harm Awareness Week is ‘take time out from gambling, put time into whanau’ so gamblers will be encouraged to take a break from their gambling and connect with whanau.

“We are hoping that pausing the pokies will also allow gamblers to think about their gambling and it may lead to people seeking help from a local service if they are experiencing harm or know someone that is,” she says.

“Pokies are the most harmful form of gambling and are more likely to be found in the more deprived communities in New Zealand. There are five times as many pokies in the most deprived areas so gambling continues to impact heavily on the more vulnerable communities, and in particular Maori and Pacific peoples.”

Problem gambling in New Zealand is a significant social issue. The latest National Gambling Study (NGS) report, confirms that although gambling participation continues to fall, levels of gambling-related harm remain unchanged. ​For a list of venues around the country taking part in Pause the Pokies and the times they are ‘pausing’, visit the PGF website.

Gisborne in action

​This week, the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority declined the appeal of the sports bar and decided not to renew the licence for the tavern. It was ruled that the tavern was being used primarily as a gambling venue, and under the Gambling Act 2003 no venue is allowed to exist purely for the operation of gambling. The alcohol on-licence for the venue will end in two months, which means an end to the venue's pokie operations making Kaiti Mall pokie-free. Kia pai mai!

The protesters were calling for the region to become pokie-free, stating that the “poorest communities have had enough” and that the money going back to the community doesn’t make up for the harm that pokies cause.

In 2015, the Gisborne District Council adopted a ‘sinking lid’ policy which means that no new class 4 gambling licences or additional pokie machines can be granted in the region, and if a venue closes a new venue cannot be established. However, it is not a true sinking lid as they do allow venues to relocate under certain circumstances. The gambling policy was last reviewed in 2015 and is reviewed every three years.

Feed Families Not Pokies

​A Tokoroa community group called ‘Feed Families Not Pokies’ is threatening to take the Government to court if they allow a gaming license that lets three venues merge into one, meaning that venue could be operating up to 30 pokie machines and essentially turn it into a “mini casino”.

Under the Gambling Act 2003 new venues are allowed a maximum of nine pokie machines, but if two or more venues merge they can exceed the maximum number.

More than 2000 people have signed a petition against the new licence for the venue, and 67 per cent of submissions called for the South Waikato District Council to adopt a true sinking lid and restrict relocations and mergers at the Council's recent class 4 gambling policy review. However, the Council voted to stick with the status quo of a sinking lid that allows relocations and mergers.

The Feed Families Not Pokies group are raising funds through a Givealittle page to fund a judicial review.

Tokoroa is home to the majority of pokies in the south Waikato, with 133 of the 178 machines in the region. Over $5 million dollars was fed into these machines last year.

​He said that there was a direct link between an “addiction to pokies and sick kids” and that more regulation is needed, because the added stress of gambling in a household can put children at a higher risk of abuse.

Author

Do you remember the folk tale about Chicken Little, ‘The Sky is falling’? It’s the story where Chicken Little believes the world is coming to an end.

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) recently released new data showing that there has been another increase in spending on pokies in New Zealand for the last quarter, and questions have been raised around why this is happening despite a decrease in pokie machine numbers.

While we feel this is a concern and needs further investigation, we want to reassure people that the sky is not falling. In fact, it’s often not very helpful to look at pokie data trends quarter to quarter. So we asked our resident researcher and librarian, Nathan Burgess, to shed a little light on how pokie trends work. ​

Pokies and the Gambling Act

Pokie expenditure in New Zealand saw a sharp rise in the late 90s and early 2000s, side-by-side with the expansion of machines around the nation. Expenditure peaked in 2004 and 2005, when over a billion dollars each year was lost to the machines in exchange for nothing more than lights and sounds. ​After 2004, when the Gambling Act was in full effect, the amount of money spent on pokies started to decline, and has been trending downwards ever since.

But the news says pokie spend is increasing?​

Every quarter, the DIA releases updated data that shows that quarter's expenditure and the current number of venues and pokie machines. Usually they will report how the expenditure has changed compared to the same quarter of the previous year. And sometimes this shows an increase in expenditure. However, a short-term increase is very different to a long-term decreasing trend.

​Looking at pokie trends

It's often not very helpful to look at changes from quarter to quarter. A graph of quarterly national expenditure reports looks like a mountain range – trending up and down. The changes tend to be seasonal - during the summer the expenditure falls, then steadily rises again through the cooler months. ​Looking at reports from year to year gives you a better picture of the rise and fall of annual expenditure. For the past two years, it has been rising - 2015 was higher than 2014, and 2016 higher still. However, those are only two data points in what is a generally downward trend.

Annual expenditure has been falling since the Gambling Act took effect 12 years ago. There were increases in 2007 and 2011, but the trend line (the dotted line in the graph) has been steadily declining.

The question is, are we currently seeing a reversal of the last decade-plus's trend? Or is this simply another peak before the trend continues downward?

It will be several more years before we know for sure whether this recent rise is a new trend or a fluke.

How can the expenditure rise at all, if the number of machines is decreasing?

The machine numbers in New Zealand have seen a steady decrease since the introduction of the Gambling Act. There are almost 4,000 fewer pokies in operation now than there were in 2007. Both the numbers of machines and the expenditure are following the same downward trend, and that's not likely to be a coincidence. But the machine numbers don't always follow the same short-term rise and falls as the expenditure because not all machines are used equally.

We know that people with gambling problems generate a disproportionate amount of pokie expenditure - Australian research estimates it could be as much as 60%. The recent National Gambling Study found that people who use pokies more often have longer play sessions. The more often you play, and the longer your play, the more money you will lose to the machines (and the more likely you are to have or develop a gambling problem).

So if a small number of people are playing a small number of machines but are generating a larger portion of expenditure, you can't guarantee the numbers of pokie machines and the expenditure spent on pokie machines will change at the same rate.​That isn't to say that reducing the machine numbers doesn't help. Research shows that having easy access to pokies is a key factor in developing and maintaining a problem with pokie gambling.This is why the Problem Gambling Foundation supports a "sinking lid" gambling policy, which are in approximately 17 districts across New Zealand. A ‘sinking lid’ policy means no new licenses for pokie machines can be issued, and pokie machines cannot be transferred to a new pub or owner if the venue closes. Reducing availability is one way that we can help reduce gambling harm.

Author

Nathan Burgess has been PGF’s research librarian since 2012.

The Problem Gambling Library at PGFNZ collects resources on gambling, problem gambling, addiction, counselling, and more, from New Zealand and around the world. These resources are available to everyone, and some items can be checked out from PGF’s main office in Auckland. Click here for contact information and to search the online catalogue.

This beautiful poem was written by someone who started using the pokies after her partner died.

It all started with that first big win. She enjoyed putting money in the machine, feeling the knobs and buttons and actually thought she could read the machines.

Sadly she was wrong and she became addicted. Once she had the habit, she couldn’t stop. Everything she did was so she could gamble. She lost millions of dollars and spent nine years in prison for drug dealing to feed her gambling habit.